As the wearables industry continues to grow at an advanced pace, we are witnessing palpable excitement and new investments by our customers and partners in the industry. We are seeing the wearables segment expand and proliferate — from consumer to enterprise segments, from mainstream to kids and senior smartwatches, from sports to fitness and wellness wearables. Our new Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Gen 1 Wearable Platforms are designed to accelerate, innovate, and grow wearables in the industry. Based on the next-generation 4nm process, these purpose-built platforms enhance our hybrid architecture and deliver ultra-low power, breakthrough performance, and highly integrated packages. This makes it possible to delight users across the consumer and enterprise segments with extended battery life, premium user experiences, and sleek, innovative designs.

Enable new and emerging segment-driven needs

As the wearables industry evolves, the myriad segments require support for new features and use cases. As an example, the fitness and wellness wearables segment emphasizes the need to track health data accurately and at lower power. Segments such as kid and senior wearables require 4G LTE connectivity with camera-based use cases in increasingly smaller IDs with extended battery life. Our Snapdragon W5+ and W5 platforms are designed to address these evolving needs and accelerate growth across segments.

Bring premium user experiences to life

Consumers are increasingly seeking premium user experiences; they want new features and functionality in sleeker, smaller designs while extending battery life. There is a call in the industry for responsive apps, faster performance, and endless capabilities.

Every aspect of these new-generation Snapdragon W5+ and W5 platforms have been re-imagined to meet the ever-demanding needs of consumers. These low power platforms extend battery life by 50 percent compared to our previous generations. Breakthrough performance supports a series of highly immersive user experiences such as 3D watch faces, rich real-time maps, and even two-way video calls.

In the ambient modes, these platforms bring virtually always-on experiences, including richer and brighter watch faces, notifications on-the-go, and music on the run. The virtually always-sensing modes make it possible to take fitness, wellness, and health to the next level. Additionally, the platform is now equipped to detect a fall in cases of emergency, which comes in handy for seniors.

Differentiate through sleek, innovative designs

With highly integrated and innovative packaging technologies, we reduced the SoC (System on a Chip) by 30 percent, the chipset by 35 percent, and the core PCB by 40 percent compared to our previous generations. These advances make it possible to design and build smaller, thinner, sleeker smartwatches and wearables. Our customers are excited about using these improvements in size to build 4G-connected smartwatches that can be deployed internationally.

Collaborate with the thriving ecosystem

As a pioneer in the wearables space, in collaboration with our customers and ecosystem partners, we have gained extensive knowledge and experience over the last few years. We are excited to continue working with our ecosystem to innovate and spark new levels of growth with these platforms. Our Qualcomm Wearable Ecosystem Accelerator Program, launched last year, has proven to be a strong asset for us. We have collaborated with a number of players in the sensors, UX (user experience), camera, NFC (near-field communication), audio/speech, and software spaces to help reduce development time for our customers. Currently 135-member strong, we continue to encourage ecosystem players to join us as we define and implement next generation wearables.

We have a rich pipeline of customers for Snapdragon W5+ and W5 platforms and announced that we have 25 designs in the works. Our first customers, Oppo and Mobvoi, shared their enthusiasm for these platforms and announced their smartwatches concurrently with our launch.

Imagine the possibilities

With the industry thriving, new platforms based on technology breakthroughs in power, better performance, and smaller size with a rich pipeline and an enthusiastic ecosystem, the possibilities are huge. What new opportunities can you imagine?

We are excited to bring the Snapdragon W5+ and W5 platforms to the industry — our most advanced leap yet!